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Count Your Blessings!

With love and passion, everyone can have a nice garden...Elaine YimCount Your Blessings!Count The Garden By The Flowers, Never By The Leaves That Fall.Count Your Life With Smiles And Not The Tears That Roll...... Author unknown.

Knowing me, Knowing you..... Aha.....!

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Malaysian Flora USDA Zone 11

Welcome to our exotic world of everlasting summers and tropical rainforests!

Monday, August 15, 2011

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - GBBD Aug 2011 and my Favicon

There are 3 colours in this rose - pink, white and yellow.

In order not to slow down the loading time of this post, the rest of the 27 more pictures of my blooming flowers has been uploaded in My Nice Garden Facebook Page. To view them, you can click on my sidebar or use the link here.

You also view and comment on the photos later but you need to "like" my facebook page before you can type in your comments there. You can also post your garden and flower pictures on my facebook page for discussion/querry.

At first I wanted to do a Picasa Wel Album slideshow or collage but it takes up a lot of time. Loading pictures to Facebook albums is almost instantaneous with the flexibility that readers can view them immediately or at a later date.

Thanks to Flower Lady's information and Grace who teaches us how to do it (link here), I now have a cute little favicon instead of the "B" Blogger icon just next to my blogname, blog title, comment icon, also floating in cyberspace to denote my unique ID. Yay! I now have an identity!

A Chilades pandava pandava butterfly on my Leucophyllum frutescens plant. I always wonder why this brown butterfly is called a cycad blue. I used to think that the blue winged and brown winged ones are different from each other. Now I know why - it is brown on the underside and blue on top. That's the beauty of God's creations.

Actually the plant is flowering, but I forgot to take a picture of the blooms which lasted only 2 days. I was distracted/ attracted by this tiny butterfly which just landed right in front of my camera. I wonder if it is looking for a nice place to lay eggs.

The flowers of this morning glory vine (Ipomoea tricolor) last only for a day.

Is this a moth or butterfly. It looks heavy but it flies very fast, like Dash of The Incredibles.
I have seen it a few times before but first time I could capture it on camera.

What's the name?

I think it is this butterfly:
Scientific name: Potanthus omaha
Common name: Lesser Dart
Family: Hesperiidae

This fella fits the description of a butterfly with "wide head, large eyes and thick body".

The flowers are a sweet red apple colour. They even have a mild apple fragrance.
I think there's a bee here. Half it's body is missing. It wasn't me who was cruel to the bug, hehe.
It was my camera's angle. I didn't know it was there when I took this picture.

Today is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day for August 2011 hosted by Carol at May Dreams Garden. To participate and/or to view what is blooming in gardens around the world, please visit the link here.

For my diary - The Hungry Ghost Festival and a Heartbreak Moment

From 31 Jul - 28 Aug, the 7th lunar month of the Chinese calendar is the season of the Hungry Ghost Festival. During this month, it is believed that the gates of hell are opened and the spirits and ghosts are free to roam the streets on earth. We are advised not to get married, move house or hold important celebrations during this month for fear of bad luck. Some people avoid swimming.

In Malaysia, opera performances, chanting and prayer sessions, some with elaborate feasts are held. A paper effigy of Phor Thor (King of Hell) is enacted and later burnt. Prayers are offered to pay respect to and/or to appease the souls of the dead which include ghosts and spirits that roam the streets. It is hoped that they will move on and have a smooth reincarnation.

For me, the main day of the festival is on August 13th which coincides with the 14th day of the 7th lunar month. On this day at home, I offer prayers to my family ancestors (husband side) during the day. After sundown, prayers with incense and some food are offered to the wandering spirits. This is done outside the gate of the house. This practise is like doing charity for the homeless. Every year it is my mother-in-law who does this. When I was little, it was my grandma's job which later became my mom's responsibility, now it is my brother's turn. Usually, small children below 12 years old are advised to stay indoors. Some people do not like to go out at night on this date.

This festival is quite different from Qing Ming where we, the living remember and pray or pay respect to the dead who are our ancestors and departed family members as a practise of filiel piety. During the Hungry Ghost Festival, the gates of hell are opened and the dead can come back to visit the living!

My family and I stayed at home on Aug 13th and 14th to watch Malaysia's sports hero, Lee Chong Wei advance to the final only to loose to Lin Dan of China in the final of the YONEX BWF World Badminton Championships 2011, in Wembley Arena Indoor Stadium 2011 in 3 sets in a deuce by just 2 points. In spite of this heart-breaking news, we (me, my DH, and children) salute our national sportsman for putting on a good fight:

As i've told you before, your photos are getting nicer everyday! It is good this is not a 'kiasu' post because i agree with my defeat! lol. I think it is NotSoAngryRedhead who told us about favicon, which is an alien term for me, even if i read it, i still feel i cannot follow, so i did not try. I don't know if i can understand it this time in your links, haha! Can i post GBBD even if the photos are not from my garden?

Vetsy, you don't need to be my Facebook friend. But you need to be a member of Facebook:1. Log-in to your profile in Facebook 2. Open My Nice Garden Page3. After you select "Like", you will see a place for comments below the album and below each photo.

Anyway, you can comment here too. Thank you for viewing my pics :>)

Andrea, thank you very much for the compliments - much appreciated and valued!

I have updated my post to insert a summary for you to understand better.

For GBBD, I will post what is blooming now from my own garden to keep a record of my garden. You can also post about your office garden by the window sill or from your province in Mabini, Batangas Bay or flowers you are growing in a community garden.

I very much enjoy viewing your photos -- on Facebook and through Blotanical. That photo of the Catharanthus is incredible with the ant and the dew drops. And thanks for all the information about the festivals!

Note: If you are unable to comment on my latest post, click on the post title to reopen the post and try writing your comments again. Comments under "Anonymous" will be automatically treated as spam if no name is included.